As the new physical reality of the post-pandemic era descends upon us – our cities, buildings, transit systems, and the entire built environment must be reimagined within a new spatial and functional context.
Transit systems that bring us to work and home, the parks and fields where we play, and office buildings, restaurants, sports facilities, and places of entertainment around the globe were all designed for a pre-2020 world. Today, those places and cities as a whole need to experience significant design change – and reimagination – in order to adapt to the health, social, and economic demands now required of them.
To accomplish this, architects, designers and planners need to come forth with fundamental ideas for new technology, policy, and design to get us through this major transformation, and into the post-pandemic era.
We’ve decided that the urgency demanded of our professions requires an immediate call to action from the students at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.
We are opening a new design challenge and calling on applicants to propose ideas that can be built, tested and implemented in our cities, buildings and infrastructure.
Participants who are accepted to the Design Innovation for a Post Pandemic World Challenge will receive:
- funding over the summer (up to $3,000) *see restrictions below
- pilot opportunities
- mentorship
- venture building instruction and guidance through MITdesignX
Accepted participants will join a series of workshops in July and August and work together (virtually) as a cohort in pursuit of design solutions. The workshops will include a series of modules that provide problem-solving techniques, and business and venture skills that will lead participants to effective implementation of their plans and, in some cases, their own ventures. They will also work with industry, community groups and government to implement pilot projects.
With this challenge, we are essentially soliciting a process of experimentation. We are looking for ideas that can be tested in real world situations, with data collection and analysis that result in design iterations.
What are we looking for…